


I know the Christmas Season was your Favorite Time of Year

by SaphiralovesTolkien



Series: 25 Days Till Christmas Fanfiction Countdown [12]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Christmas, Christmas Music, Christmas Party, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Sad Christmas, Sad with a Happy Ending, Tissue Warning, You Have Been Warned, mentioned Erik/Charles, one use of foul language, other members of X-Men mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 11:02:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16973391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaphiralovesTolkien/pseuds/SaphiralovesTolkien
Summary: The Christmas season is hard for Erik, but maybe this year will make his world a little bit brighter.





	I know the Christmas Season was your Favorite Time of Year

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, posting at 11 pm is still counts.   
> Day 12: Character A doesn’t feel the Christmas spirit but Character B who lives above them, keeps playing Christmas carols really loud  
> I don't own anything obvious.  
> OCs mentioned, so if not even that's your thing, don't read!  
> Betaed by Grammarly.  
> Enjoy!

> And I know the Christmas season was your favorite time of year  
> You loved to help us decorate our tree  
> But now that you’re with Jesus  
> Can’t imagine how you feel cause he’s the one who bled and died upon  
> The tree for you and me  
> 

Erik sighed and glanced up at the ceiling as if it had personally insulted him which, in a way, it had. It was the person who lived above him that was at fault, but Erik liked to blame the ceiling; namely, because said person was adorable and he had no inclination to yell at him for playing Christmas songs too loud. However, Erik was reaching the end of his patience. Upstairs Neighbor was one of those people who played Christmas music a week before Thanksgiving and didn’t stop until at least a week after the new year. This year had been no exception, Christmas music had been playing non-stop since November 12th, and it was still going strong. 

Peter eyed his father as he made yet another round around the living room, the speedster swore his dad was going to wear a burn track into the carpet with the amount of walking he was doing. Peter honestly had no clue why his dad didn’t just go up there and talk to Upstairs Neighbor. Why Erik didn’t call Upstairs Neighbor by his real name-Charles- was a mystery to Peter. He had mentioned the assigned name to Charles’ adopted kids, Jean, Ororo, and the twins My and El, once and they had found it amusing. Jean had a theory that by calling Charles a different name, especially an ambiguous one like Upstairs Neighbor, was a way to see their father as not a person and more a nuisance so that he had an excuse to be mad. Ororo thought it was nerves because Erik liked him while the twins didn’t have a particular notion, they just found it amusing. 

Peter looked down at his cell phone which had alerted him to a text:

_ Tell your dad to stop thinking so loudly, Charles is really strict about not prying into people’s minds, but your dad is thinking REALLY loud _

Peter looked back up at his father and eyed him again:

_ Yeah I don’t think that's happening any time soon _

_ What's he thinking about? _

At first, Peter thought Jean wasn’t going to answer, while she wasn’t as strict as Charles she still didn’t like prying into people’s heads without permission unless it was for an excellent reason.

_ He's thinking about _

_ You Mum _

That hit Peter a lot harder then he was expecting, his mother had been dead for three years now and yeah it hurt, but Peter had learned to live and let go. His dad on the other hand still got really moody and melancholy around Christmas, like super unhappy. It wasn’t safe to approach him unless you had a ten-foot plastic pole and even then he still might throw it at you. Yeah, Christmas wasn’t the best holiday for his dad.

* * *

 

_ One hour later _

Erik was in the mood between absurd anger and depression-like grief. He knew that his wife had died three years ago, and he should be over it, Peter was fine, he had grieved and then was done, but Peter hadn’t known her as Erik had. Peter knew her as his mother, Erik knew Magda as his best friend, soul mate, and wife of nearly 20 years. He still remembers the first time he met her, he had fallen in love which had been a foreign concept to him at the time, but he had loved her and had married her as soon as possible. 

Magda had been the light of his life, and she had loved both him and Peter so much, but coming in at a close third was Christmas. She absolutely loved Christmas time, all the decorations, the tree, the ornaments, the food, the presents, and the music. God, she would play Christmas music at the beginning of November and wouldn’t stop until the end of January. She made Christmas that much more special and magical every year and every year they had a wonderful time. 

Until she got sick.

The sickness was swift which meant she hadn’ been in a lot of pain for very long, but she survived long enough to see her very last Christmas. She died Christmas night. The next four months were filled with the funeral, moving across the country, and endless waves of grief. Erik hadn’t been able to live in the same house, city, and state that they had spent 20 happy years in that as soon as the funeral was over, he packed up everything and moved himself and his son across the country to New York. 

Christmas was never the same after that. The first Christmas without her was a complete disaster, the closer it got to Christmas the sadder Erik got until he couldn’t stand the holiday. That year no decorations were put up, Peter was sent to his grandparents, and Erik can’t even remember if there had been any presents. The year after was just as bad, unsurmountable waves of grief that just tore into him that he sent Peter to his grandparent's house for the holiday again. Last year was when it started getting better, and he owed all of that to Peter and his new friends. 

Erik was going to send Peter back to his grandparents, but Peter had been determined to spend Christmas with him, something about nobody should be alone at Christmas. One can imagine Erik’s surprise when he came home from work one day to find his son and seven other kids around his age decorating the apartment and a tree. At first, Erik had been suspicious and had demanded to know what was going on. It took Peter 10 minutes to convince him that the other kids were just friends that he had invited over to help decorate as a surprise. Erik hadn't been convinced the kids had the best intentions until one of them shot sparks from her fingers and another one, who was entirely blue and had a tail, came out from the depths of the closet. Erik felt immensely better knowing they were mutants, but he was still surprised to see so many in one place, especially since he had never seen them before. One of them, a girl called Jean, had explained that her, her siblings, and their cousin had just moved in a month ago and had only recently started going to the same school as Peter. Erik had been glad that Peter had friends, especially mutant friends until they revealed that they lived directly above him. 

They were Upstairs Neighbor’s kids, the guy who played Christmas music really loudly and non-stop. Erik had come close to marching up there to give him a piece of his mind multiple times, but Peter had managed to stop him; now he knew the reason. The kids were eating cookies and talking when Jean and her siblings’ adopted dad came to the door to pick them all up. Erik had opened the door, ready to give the person on the other side a stern talking to about Christmas music without being interrupted by his son, when he was stopped dead in his tracks. 

The guy was cute, super cute, with his brown hair that fell in curls around his ears and his very blue eyes that looked to be staring into his soul. All of Erik’s harsh complaints had flown out the window, and he had stood there staring at the man for a solid minute before Peter had zipped over to introduce them. Charles Xavier was his name, and Erik knew he was royally fucked because now Upstairs Neighbor had both a name and a face to go with it, an adorable face. A lovely face that made Erik feel the same things he had felt when he first laid eyes on Magda all those years ago.

After that day Erik saw the group of kids more frequently, they usually hung out in Peter’s room or sometimes they would go to Scott’s apartment if his brother wasn’t home or Jubilee’s if her parents weren’t in. He only saw Charles in passing, and the brit would always greet him with a warm smile and a wave. Erik tried to put him out of his mind and even tried to reinstate himself in grief, but whenever he thought of Magda, Charles would pop in as well. It was infuriating.

Erik was almost positive that it was Magda’s doing if wherever she was, she could do things like that. Erik thought it was Magda’s way of telling him it was okay to move on and find someone else and it eased Erik’s heart to know he had her approval, but it was still hard to completely let go. 

“Hey dad, you ready to go? You are coming this year right? You promised Charles.”

Erik wanted to smack his four day younger self for agreeing to go to Charles’ Christmas party; what had he been thinking? Oh wait, he hadn’t been thinking at all. When Charles had asked him in the elevator, Erik had every intention to say no, Christmas being a sensitive time of the year and all that, but when Charles had looked at him with those blue eyes, Erik had found himself saying yes, much to the telepath’s delight. 

Erik sighed and ran a hand through his hair, he could choose not to go, say something came up at work (though Raven and Azazel would rat him out), he could say he didn’t feel well, but both Peter and Jean would catch that lie quickly. He could guilt everyone and reveal the truth as to why he didn’t go last year, but seeing the imagined looks of pity on everyone’s faces was not worth it. He thought of Magda, and what she would say, she would probably o push him out the door and lock it behind him and refuse to let him in until he went. 

That settled it; he was going to go and at least try not to bring everyone else’s holiday spirits down. Besides, he could always leave later and claim a headache or food poisoning from Raven’s cooking.

* * *

 

When Erik and Peter got to the door and knocked, it was opened by none other but Charles himself. He smiled when he saw who was at the door and called into the apartment to let everyone else know, apparently they were the last to arrive, and Peter was quick to place the blame on Erik. Charles chuckled and let the speedster and metal bender in closing the door behind them. Peter immediately zipped to where his friends were assembled around the food table, and the sound of laughter soon drifted over.

Erik felt extremely awkward was close to calling it quits and returning to his apartment when Charles turned to him, “I’m glad you could make it this year Erik, Peter seemed pretty disappointed that you weren’t here last year.”

That didn’t surprise Erik, although it was probably less sad that his father wasn’t here and more disappointed that he couldn’t poke fun at his crush, “Yes, well Peter made a compelling argument as to why I should make an appearance this year.”

Charles smiled, “I’m glad he managed to convince you, the place feels  complete now that you’re here.”

Erik smiled back at the telepath, “I’m glad to be here Charles. Care to introduce me to the fellow parents?”

Yes, Christmas would always sting a little bit, and Erik would still feel sad around the holiday, but now he feels that he can finally take the first step into the next chapter of his life and who knows where it could lead? Maybe to four more kids, he should probably start looking for larger places.

**Author's Note:**

> This one had a different tone going on, expect tomorrow's to be the same. It wouldn't be a Christmas countdown series if there wasn't some death...  
> Thanks to all who have read and reviewed so far, Hobbit hugs to you all!  
> Guess what? Now that finals are officially over; I can start updating during regular hours, maybe. Don't count on that for the remainder of the week, in fact, keep that until the next week.   
> The song is called The Sweetest Gift, you should listen if you've ever lost someone around the holidays. It's by the Piano Guys.  
> Have a lovely rest of your night and go to bed for Eru's sake!!!


End file.
